LBGP NOTEBOOK: Marco Andretti happy with season start

It's no secret that Marco Andretti has not been happy about the way his IndyCar career has gone. He told this newspaper just that last year at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

In seven seasons before 2013, Andretti's highest finish in series points has been seventh twice. Last year he was 16th. And he has won just two races.

Andretti is off to a nice start this season, however, with a third-place finish at St. Petersburg and seventh at Barber Motorsports Park, good enough to put him in fourth place in series points with 61.

"I think I'm pleased," said Andretti, who races for his father, Michael, and Andretti Autosport. "I've been really working on consistency in the offseason, and we have that. But I need to be consistently better. Obviously, having teammates wins races, it bodes well for us and what we can do in the future. But I definitely feel it's my turn and we need to win."

Andretti said one of the things he concentrated on during the offseason was improving his performance on street and road courses. St. Pete is a street course, Barber is a road course and Long Beach is a street course.

"Oh, yeah. I mean, on the streets you just have to look at the results," he said of previous years. "I was over-driving it, but I didn't know how I was over-driving it. It has nothing to do with focus or anything like that. It's just been working on what I've been lacking, you know?"

Andretti, 26, said he could not divulge what he found out in that regard. But he did have an interesting response when asked if he believes this could be his breakout year.

"It has to be, yeah, it has to be," he said between practices Friday.

And why is that?

"Well, I think that speaks for itself, doesn't it?" he said.

Andretti then walked away.

Out of 27 drivers, Andretti on Friday had the 17th-best practice lap of 1:10.3292.

- Robert Morales

Whatever Lola wants

Perhaps no one was more surprised about which car was fastest in Friday morning's ALMS practice session at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach than the team that pulled off the feat.

P1 drivers Nick Heidfeld and Neel Jani turned a lap of 1:14.708 in their Rebellion Racing Lola, easily the fastest of the two-hour practice session.

Heidfeld is making his Long Beach debut this season, and Jani hadn't raced here since he had a Champ Car ride in 2007.

"Our car isn't made for those slow corners," said Jani, explaining that the Toyota-powered entry is more suited for tracks with longer straightaways and faster corners than Long Beach's 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street course. "We've never run on (any similar circuit) and the car was already in the ballpark (for a correct setup). It was a real good effort by the team."

Heidfeld said the seat time he got Friday morning was more important to him than the times the car recorded, and he concentrated on finding his correct braking points for the tight turns.

"It can be a big mess (if you miss your braking point)," the Dane said.

Jani said there wasn't much he could take from his Champ Car experience in Long Beach and apply to ALMS.

"The cars are a lot different," he explained, "and the track is a lot less bumpy than I remember."

In P2, Scott Tucker and Ryan Briscoe were fastest with a lap of 1:17.727 for Level 5 Motorsports. Open-wheel veteran Bruno Junqueira teamed with Southern Californian Duncan Ende to turn the fastest lap in PC (1:18.200) for RSR Racing, while Bryce Miller and Marco Holzer (1:20.322) were fastest in GT for Paul Miller Racing. In GTC, Cooper MacNeil and Jeroen Bleekemolen of Alex Job Racing had the best lap (1:23.039).

High praise for AJR

Sounding like a 100-yard rusher giving props to his offensive linemen, ALMS GTC driver Cooper MacNeil had only great things to say about Alex Job Racing following Friday morning's practice session at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

MacNeil and partner driver Jeroen Bleekemolen posted the fastest practice lap in the GTC class, getting their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car around the 1.968-mile temporary street circuit in 1:23.039. MacNeil said it was the years of Long Beach experience of the AJR engineers and crew that was the difference.

"The team knows this car better than Porsche knows this car," said MacNeil, who hails from the Chicago area. "Their 20-plus years of experience shine through when we come to this track each year.

"Preparation and experience," he continued. "My job and Jeroen's job is just to drive the car fast."

- David Felton

Relaxing on the track

High-profile drivers switching teams can lead to a loaded result.

Drivers are expected to show immediately favorable results. When they do not, they might start pressing. They might get rattled.

Graham Rahal finally joined father Bobby's Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team after racing for Chip Ganassi the last two years.

"It's a much more relaxing sort of environment," the seven-year veteran said. "It's great team. Is it more of a fun environment? Absolutely. Am I more relaxed? Absolutely."

But the results have not been very good. Rahal was 21st two weeks ago in Birmingham, Ala. And is 19th in series points after two races.

"We had tough times and we're really seeing what the guys are made of," he said. "I think they have all responded really well. Once we achieve the success that we know the team is capable of, it's going to be a lot better."

Rahal said the team appears to have its fuel-filling problem resolved; he is not sure his car has received a full tank of gas in any of his races this season.

"It's all starting to work together," Bobby Rahal said. "The problem is that every other weekend your results tell the story."

The team had the 14th-fastest time of 1:10.1906 during Friday's practice session. That was in the morning session as he did not get a full lap in the afternoon session because of four red flags.

- Keith Lair

Munoz fastest in Indy Lights

Carlos Munoz recorded the fastest practice time for Indy Lights with a 1:15.1004. Peter Dempsey was second with a best lap of 1:15.2299 and Sage Karam was third with a 1:15.4056.